Former Birmingham Stallions quarterback J Mar Smith is answering the questions that UFL investor Mike Repole does not want to answer. One day, after the Birmingham Stallions named former Saint Louis Battlehawks quarterback A.J. McCarron as the new head coach in Birmingham, J’Mar Smith found himself on the outside looking in. In response to being removed from the Stallions organization, Smith is spilling the beans about Repole’s plan for a “Great Reset” for the UFL in 2026.
According to a breaking news announcement by the State of the Stallions X account, Smith is confirming that UFL rosters will be blown up despite earlier denials of that rebranding strategy.
The hard truth is that the only way the UFL will be treated as a legitimate professional sports league is if a “Great Reset” is necessary to establish it as the best Spring football league in recent history. When the UFL was formed, it was a fusion of two failed Spring football leagues, the XFL and the USFL. While both leagues had their share of fans, neither had a sound business plan to become sustainable.
Rather than have both the XFL and USFL fold, the leadership of both leagues decided to combine their efforts to create a new league with the best parts of both. Unfortunately, for the UFL, taking two failing leagues and merging them together is not a guaranteed recipe for success. That lack of guaranteed success left the door open for Mike Repole to step in and find a way to salvage the league and provide it with a solid foundation, making expansion realistic in the near future.
The first move Repole made was to keep the teams’ names and locations that were receiving reasonable support from the city’s fan base. On the other hand, three teams that failed to establish a loyal fan base were relocated. That left the San Antonio Brahmas, Memphis Showboats, and Michigan Panthers packing up and moving on to Orlando, Louisville, and Columbus, giving those teams a chance to reintroduce themselves to new fan bases. Did these moves indicate that the UFL is moving towards a “Great Reset”?
The next move Mike Repole has made is to dismiss every general manager in the UFL and to form a centralized Player Personnel department that manages the rosters of all eight UFL teams. In addition to changing the player management strategy, the UFL has also made recent moves to remove the previous coaches of many of the teams that did not relocate, including the Houston Gamblers, Birmingham Stallions, and the Michigan Panthers, now known as the Columbus Aviators.
So, with a new player management system and a new crop of head coaches, including former players A.J. McCarron and Ted Ginn Jr., it’s safe to assume the UFL rosters will also be reset, as Smith confirms. This off-season, the UFL introduced a new Free-Agency period for players to have the option to change teams for the first time in UFL history. But there were very few roster moves because the factors that usually drive free-agent movement do not currently exist in the UFL. All players’ salaries are standardized across the league, and with the UFL using a hub city format in Arlington, Texas, changing teams to be in a new city does not exist.
Therefore, free agency was never going to create the parity in the UFL that the league desperately needs to survive. A lack of parity is the stumbling block preventing the UFL from establishing loyal fanbases, because a league with only eight teams should not consistently have 1- and 2-win teams in the standings. Therefore, the only solution that can truly allow the UFL to establish itself as a sustainable league is to blow up the rosters and balance the talent across the league.
Pros of a UFL “Great Reset”
With a complete rebrand of the UFL for 2026, the league may lose interest from a few of its die-hard fans, but there aren’t enough of those fans to cater to if the UFL is going to have long-term sustainability. However, if the league can attract casual sports fans with fresh logos, coaches, and rosters, it has a chance to begin turning a profit. With the centralized player management system already being established, it should be relatively easy to create rosters that will allow all eight UFL teams to be competitive on a weekly basis.
In addition, the UFL will allow teams to add regional players within 200 miles of each city represented in the UFL to their rosters. Those connections to local players that fans in that region are already fans of, or at least are familiar with, should attract more fans to games and promotional events. For the UFL to continue as a league, it must build strong ties with the community, and that will open the door for local ownership groups to take control of the teams and allow the teams to become active parts of the cities they represent during the UFL season.
Cons of a UFL “Great Reset”
The downside of a UFL “Great Reset” is that the fans that are already committed to supporting the UFL will feel alienated for feeling as if the league is not being loyal to them. On the bright side, the reason why the UFL must have a “Great Reset” is because it needs to play in smaller stadiums and improve the aethestics on game day in person and on television. Several UFL teams have played a majority of their games in major league stadiums, with sparsely populated groups of fans. That has even been true for the best team in the league the Birmingham Stallions.
While the current fan base of teams will initially resist the changes occurring in the league, those fans will most likely return relatively quickly when the product on the field and on television has improved. With those current loyal fans and without attracting casual fans, the UFL has a very finite timeline for existence. Therefore, standing pat and resisting changes that could lead to progress is the greatest con because those factors will be what leads to the death of the UFL as a professional football league.
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3 Comments
by 4th&long
I agree with many of your points Aaron. Though losing Skip seems to be not necessarily anticipated.
There are many aspects of the TSL but with more $ and marketing/promo. Leverage a single ownership model to shave costs and – at least in theory – add regionality and parity makes sense.
I was ok with the NFL Jr approach but making UFL a long term success is much more important.
I also think the player induced BS last year: the CBA fight, talk of strike and minicamp holdout may be a factor too. Hence the “dev league” and “3 years and move on” talk. And I didn’t like it but I get that the UFL isn’t going to tolerate 1 yr contract players dictating more costs and very bad PR.
by Brian
I wasn’t a fan of the players asking for more money when the product on the field was so bad. I accept that they’re professional athletes but asking for money when teams struggles to complete passes, score more than 16 points or do something that creates excitement on the field was a bad look.
by 4th&long
If the league was generating more money via, attendance, TV revenues and corporate sponsors, then players could have leverage to say – “we want a cut”.
With that not being the case all they are doing is causing their own demise.